


Advanced Acting and Pretences

by AtLeastIWasHere



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Argument in Established Relationship, F/M, Fake Body Swap, Freaky Friday Parody, Gen, Pretend, Random - Freeform, Romance, established relationships - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-04
Updated: 2013-10-04
Packaged: 2017-12-28 09:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/990542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtLeastIWasHere/pseuds/AtLeastIWasHere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Troy and Britta swap roles. Abed and Annie join in too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Advanced Acting and Pretences

**Author's Note:**

> So, ever since that Freaky Friday episode, I wanted to do… this. 'Freaky Friday' romance stuff. Yeah, enjoy. Set probably after the original "Basic Human Anatomy" episode.
> 
> The last paragraph is my favourite, tell me what you think!

Jeff walked into Group Study Room F, glancing up to say hi before returning to his phone. Then he paused and looked up again slowly.   
“Um… What’s going on?”  
Annie looked at him from Abed’s with a vaguely confused look. “We’re doing a body swap episode,” she clarified.   
“Freaky Friday?”  
Annie wrinkled her nose. “More like the episode “Rough Trade” from American Dad. We haven’t really ‘swapped bodies’, we’re just pretending we have.” She tilted her head. “The storyline was good, but the constant discontinuity of Roger’s backstory ruins the suspension of belief. In other stories we’ve seen Roger hold several jobs, it makes Roger’s side of the story unbelievable.” She frowned. “Then again, it is a cartoon and they don’t really rely on continuity.” She tilted again.  
There was a silence.  
“Good Abed,” Jeff said.  
Annie gave a proud smile, then hid it again in a neutral expression.   
Jeff took his seat and looked around. In Britta’s spot was Troy, and vice versa, just as Annie was in Abed’s seat and Abed was in hers.   
“So um…”  
Abed gave him a bright Annie-esque smile, which made Jeff shudder slightly. He looked back at Annie. “Why?”  
Annie’s back straightened. “Well, Britta and Troy were fighting and then they started mimicking each other. Abed decided he wanted in, and somehow…” She took a deep breath suddenly, realising was slipping out of character slightly. “It’s a bit.”  
Jeff looked at the four of them. “And you guys are all right with this?”  
Shirley shrugged. “We weren’t invited to this.” She waved a hand around.  
“You weren’t there.” Annie said quickly.   
“Damn right we weren’t there.” Pierce muttered.   
Jeff gave them looks. “I wasn’t talking to you.” He looked at Britta. “Seriously?”  
She gave an over-exaggerated shrug. “Don’t ask me, I’m a stupid jock.”  
Troy gave a strained laugh. “You could ask me, but I’ll just give you a long pointless answer that will end up just being another protest.”  
He glared at Britta, who pulled a face back.  
“They’re still fighting,” Annie needlessly clarified.   
“R-ight,” Jeff said. He looked at Abed. “And you’re fine with this.”  
Abed smiled again. “Yep. It could be an interesting experience.” He mimicked Annie’s tones and inflections perfectly in a very chilling way.  
He looked back at Annie, the one he’d always thought was the sanest of them, but apparently wasn’t quite as sane as he’d thought. “And what about classes?”  
Annie shrugged. “We figure that Greendale’s rules and structure isn’t cemented enough to even notice the change.”  
Jeff thought on it for a bit. “Right, whatever. As long as it doesn’t affect me.”

~  
“Thank god Professor Cornwallis is away,” Jeff said.   
“Yeah, but now Duncan’s the teacher,” Annie pointed out.   
Abed sighed. “So much for learning.”  
Jeff gave him a look. Abed gave him an innocent smile, then stepped towards Annie, who wrapped an arm around his waist and kissed his forehead.   
“Right, this is weird even for Greendale,” Jeff muttered to himself. He took his seat.   
“Good morning class,” Duncan said as he entered the room. “Glad to see some familiar faces. Now, what class is this?”  
Abed put up his hand, causing Duncan to frown. “Abed?”  
“History.” Abed said.   
“Ri-ght.” Duncan said. He sighed. “Another class I know nothing about. Perfect.” He looked around. “Any history in particular or just…” he waved his hands. “Anything?”  
The class swapped looks.   
“Well,” Abed said. “Everything, I guess.”  
“Ah,” Duncan said. “That’s…” he frowned. “Wait, isn’t it usually Annie who gives the answers?”  
“Normally, but we’re doing a role-swap episode.” Annie filled in.  
Duncan opened his mouth to respond, then shook his head. “Right. So… history. I’ll go get the projector, I guess. Anyone know any good YouTube clips?”   
Abed sighed loudly while everyone else cheered.

~

Abed slid into bed next to Annie, who was watching Inspector Spacetime on her laptop.   
Abed wrapped his arms around Annie, who smiled faintly and looked at Abed.   
“I’m enjoying this,” she admitted. “There’s something… fun… about pretending to be you.”  
Abed paused and slipped out Annie’s character, sitting up. “It is interesting,” Abed replied. “Like the episode of Inspector Spacetime-”  
Annie shushed him with a kiss. “I’m the one who’s supposed to be quoting things, remember?”

~

“Inspector Spacetime tonight?” Annie asked Britta as they entered the Study Room.   
“Damn right,” Britta replied, and they did Troy and Abed’s signature handshake. Abed didn’t look up from his book, while Troy rolled his eyes in a superior way.   
“Well that’s just wrong,” Shirley murmured.   
“Got that right,” Jeff muttered back. “So you guys are still doing this?”  
“Yep,” the four chorused.   
“And how are your classes going?”  
“Pretty good actually,” Troy said.   
“I don’t think anyone’s paying attention.” Britta added. Troy shot her a look of annoyance.   
“Greendale. Where else could four people pretend to be each other and not get found out?” Jeff said sarcastically.  
“Dean-Dong,” the Dean said as he entered, twirling so his skirt fluttered around his legs.   
Jeff sighed. “Of course.” He looked up at the Dean. “So Dean,” he said with false enthusiasm. “What is it this time? Lemme guess.” He looked over the Dean’s outfit. “Art festival? No.” he answered himself. “Dance party? The buildings on fire again, isn’t it?”  
Dean petted his shoulder playfully. “No, and I wish you wouldn’t ruin the moment, Jeff.” He touched Jeff’s torso, and gave a shudder and a moan. “But I forgive you. Actually,” he said, perking up, “It’s just a routine stop, you know, just Dean-ing around.”  
Jeff rolled his eyes. “Name-puns. Right.”  
The Dean smiled. “Well, nice talking to you, but my rounds won’t do themselves.” He danced out of the room, while the Study Group watched.   
The Dean was only three steps out of the room before he froze and walked back. “Um, hi again guys.”  
“Dean.” Jeff said, sharing a look with Britta. “Did you forget something?”  
“No, no,” the Dean said, as he circled the table with a look of suspicion. He walked from one side to the room, then back to Jeff. “Jeff, can I see you outside?”  
Jeff sighed. “Sure.” He slid out of his chair and followed the Dean into the corridor.   
“Uh, Jeff, does something seem.. different.. about your study group?”  
“You mean the fact that Abed’s wearing a skirt and Britta’s listening to rap music?” Jeff asked. The four of them had all really gotten into the reverse roles. Britta saw it as a feminism thing, and Troy wanted to prove that it wasn’t as hard being a girl as Britta made it seem. Of course, that made no sense since their gender hadn’t changed and they weren’t pretending to be the other gender, just acting like it, but Jeff had given up reasoning with the situation a few hours after he had been alerted to it. Abed and Annie were enjoying themselves though, and Annie and Britta had been enjoying their new relationship too. The only real conflict was between Troy and Britta, with their little lovers quarrel.   
“Mm, mm, yeah.” Dean said. “That’s definitely part of it.”  
Jeff sighed. “It’s a bit.”  
“Oh,” The Dean said. “That makes sense.” And with that he walked off.   
“Does it?” Jeff called after him, but obviously the Dean didn’t hear him, because he didn’t turn around. “This whole place is nuts,” Jeff muttered.   
He walked back to the group. “Let’s study shall we?”

~  
“So how long is this going to go for?” Jeff asked Britta, later on.  
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “At first it was just something to get to Troy with, but now I’m actually enjoying it. Oh, and guess what?” She looked over her shoulder. “Annie,” she called.  
“Hi.” Annie said. “What’s up?”  
“Let’s do that thing we practised.”  
Annie smiled. “Cool.” And then she began beatboxing.   
Jeff couldn’t be more surprised, until Britta cut in with “Donde, está, la biblioteca. Me llamo T-Bone La araña discoteca.”  
“Discoteca, muñeca, La biblioteca es en bigote grande, perro, manteca.” Annie continued.   
“Manteca, bigote, gigante, pequeño, cabeza es nieve, cerveza es bueno.” Britta replied.   
“Buenos dias, me gusta papas frías, bigote de la cabra Es Cameron Diaz. Yea boi. Boi. Yea. What. It’s 2009.”  
“Word.” Britta finished.   
“Right, and now I’m mentally scarred with that as well,” Jeff told them, after he had absorbed exactly what had happened.  
“Oh, admit it,” Britta said, as Annie walked back to Abed, “you’re enjoying this just as much as we are.”  
“Oh yeah, I’m definitely loving this.” Jeff replied sarcastically. 

~  
“Hey, Britta,” Troy said in the middle of the night.   
Britta sat up. “What’s up Troy?”  
“So um, this whole role-swapping thing…”  
“It’ll end when you apologise for calling me the Britta of Britta’s, who… what was it? Would pick any minority to fight about.”  
Troy scowled. “If you apologise for calling me a brainless jock.”  
“No.”  
“Fine.”  
“Fine.”  
“Good!”  
“I know!” She lay back down and turned away from him, and neither said anything for the rest of the night.

~

“Right that’s it!” Jeff said, slamming his books down on the table. “This has got to end. Now!”  
The study group looked at him.   
“Um, Jeff,” Abed began in his best nervous-Annie voice.  
“Cram it Abed.” He looked at Britta and Troy. “This is your fault. Now you two make up so we can get on with our lives.”  
“Jeff, really, we’re fine with it-”  
“I said shut up Abed!”  
Abed shut up.   
Jeff stood up, and paced. “I’ve had with the four of you.” He inclined his head. “Actually Abed, Annie, you guys did a pretty good job. But you two, you guys aren’t just bad actors, you guys are using this whole thing to get back at each other and it’s just annoying.”  
Troy and Britta looked at each other guiltily while Annie and Abed swapped looks. “Jeff, you’re trying to force the ending,” Annie said, with a toss of her hair.  
“What?” Jeff said, suddenly despondent.   
Annie looked at Jeff. “Abed and I have been talking about it,” Annie informed him. “We’ve figured out exactly how this will end. You doing this,” she said with a wave of her hand, “isn’t going to solve anything.”  
“Of course,” Jeff said, and crossed his arms. “And exactly how is this ‘supposed’ to end?”  
Annie and Abed swapped looks, secretly communicating.  
“If I could take the floor?” Abed said, suddenly himself again as he stood up.  
Jeff looked around, shrugged and sat back at his seat while Annie and Abed next to the table.   
“I’ll be Troy, you be Britta,” Abed told her.   
Annie nodded.  
“Oh, look at me, I’m Britta,” Abed began in a mocking tone. “I only support the Underdog because I want people to respect me.”  
“Well, I’m Troy the idiot.” Annie retorted, arms folded. “The overgrown child who’s only real accomplishment is in a sport I don’t even play anymore.”  
“Well I…” Abed faltered. “That’s not true!”  
“Neither is what you said about me!” Annie retorted.  
“Apologise!” Abed demanded.  
“You first!”   
“No!”  
And then suddenly they were kissing.   
“Aw,” Shirley said.   
They pulled apart reluctantly.   
“Do you really think I’m that needy?” Annie asked, anger gone.   
“No.” Abed paused. “Do you think my life’s over?”  
“Of course not!” Annie replied. “You’re smart and funny and…”  
Abed smiled again and they kissed.  
“Aw,” Shirley and Pierce said.   
Britta and Troy gave each other shy looks.   
“Do you really think that’s how it’ll end?” Jeff asked Abed after the two had separated again.  
“Yes.” Abed said, as Abed again. “Well. Not anymore. It’ll resolve much quicker now that they know how it would have ended.”  
“So, uh…back to normal?” Troy asked.  
Britta smiled. “Normal.” She replied and nodded.   
Jeff sighed in relief. “Thank god for that then.”

~

“~Britta and Annie in the Morning~”  
“Now today we have Dr Ian Duncan on the show,” Annie began.   
“Dr Duncan, originally the psychology teacher, had been forced into several teaching positions in the school, most recently the sub for Cornwallis’ History class.” Britta introduced. “How does that make you feel Professor?”  
“Ah…”  
Jeff entered the room and almost did a double take. “Not this again,” he said.   
“Oh,” Annie and Britta said. “Hi Jeff.”  
“I thought you said you guys were finished with this?”  
“We are!” Annie reassured him.   
“Yeah,” Britta said. “But Abed and Troy asked us to fill for them-”  
“Fill in for what?! There are no cameras! Nothing! You’re not filming anything!”  
“We kn-ow,” Annie replied.  
“Totally,” Britta agreed.   
“Good.” Jeff said, anger gone. “Good,” he repeated.  
They waited a few seconds, then smiled at the cameras.  
“~Britta and Annie in the Morn-ing~”   
From outside they could hear Jeff cursing.


End file.
